Elizabeth Cabraser, a partner at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, has left her imprint on the legal profession during a lengthy career in the courtroom. But she's not done yet. As she said in accepting The American Lawyer's Lifetime Achievement Award at an event in New York on Dec. 4, she isn't slowing down anytime soon. "I will strive daily to live up to this recognition," she said.

She offered her perspective on exactly what it means to be a lawyer—and why it has been her life's work.

"The law is a profession, a business, an industry, an advocation, a vocation and a calling," she said, "but more than anything it is an endless and ever-evolving project to which we are each honored to lend the work of our lifetimes."